Family Photos

Here are some of our family photos that Stephanie took.  We love them!  Thanks so much Stephanie!

Holiday Weekend

We had a wonderful 4 days.  It was so nice to have Robert home.  We stayed close to home, finished Emma's playroom, and decorated for Christmas.  We haven't had a weekend like this for so long.  I was sad that Robert had to go back to work today.  I was spoiled having him home!
Emma's playroom is done, but I want to hold off on pictures until we get her kitchen up.  When we opened the box, we discovered that the refrigerator door was missing, so the company is sending us one.  When we get that in, I will put up all the pictures.  But here is a sneak peak.

 I am not sure what type of smile that is, but she LOVES her room and new table!

We also were able to get our tree and decorations up.  We decided to go one more year with our "baby" tree.  Emma loves it.  She points out all the ornaments, calls them by name, and even says "hi" and "night night" lights.  It is really cute!

 

A Quick Look at our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at Robert's grandmother's house.  But before we headed over, Emma got to have her first cinnamon role and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  She actually did better watching the parade then I thought she would.  I think her favorite part was when the cheerleaders came on.  She loved that they were shaking pom poms and would dance and shake her arms with them.  It was a great morning. 
It is usually busy, busy once we get to Grandma Jane's (visiting, eating, Emma chasing puppies and kittens) that unfortunately there is little time for pictures.  But I did get some of Emma before we left, and a couple during the day. 
We are enjoying a long weekend working on Emma's playroom, decorating for Christmas, and squeezing in a couple of photo sessions in between.  Hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday weekend!

 Do you think she knows that after Thanksgiving comes Christmas!?

EXTREME close up!

Grandma Mary got Dancing Mickey for Emma.  It was suppose to be a Christmas present, but I guess she has found a huge horse that she wants to get her instead. Emma loves it and has been dancing with Mickey all day today!

Grandma Mary also got her this adorable coat. 

It's Been Awhile!

I had full intentions of updating the blog a week ago.  Then, not much was going on, and I would have been happy to report no more hives.....Then this happened....

We were driving in the car eating some dried fruit snack mix, when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw this.  Honestly my heart stopped and immediately called her pediatrician.  Unfortunately all the pediatricians were in a lunch meeting and she wouldn't even be able to be seen until almost 2 hours later.  So then my next thought was to run into Target and get some Benadryl in her as quickly as I could.  I had my mom on the phone at this time trying to have her calm me down.  She told me just to go home.  By the time I got her out of the car, found the medicine, checked out, and got her back in the car, I could have been home.  So that is what I did.  The whole time this was going on, Emma was singing her ABC's!  She was completely fine.  I was just so worried that this was going to get worse and possibly affect her air way.  Luckily we made it home, I was able to get some Benadryl and Zyrtec in her, and 5 hours later, her face was back to normal.
I have no idea what caused it.  The snack mix had nuts in it, but she didn't eat any nuts.  So maybe she is going to have a severe reaction to nuts, and the fruit touching the nuts was enough to set her off.  She also had some mango, which she hasn't had since pureed baby food, so that is a possibility also.
We have an appointment with an allergist mid December.  I know the nurse practitioner there, so I was very thankful that they squeezed us in as soon as possible.
So for now we just wait, stay away from nuts, and take Benadryl and Zyrtec with us everywhere!

Other then that, not too much is going on.  I am busy taking pictures and getting ready to official launch my business, and Robert is in talks with his boss about buying the company from him.   Emma's playroom is coming along, with hopes of it getting done by the weekend.  I will post pictures when it is ready.  We are heading over to Robert's grandmother's house for Thanksgiving this year and looking forward to hopefully (he is on call) having Robert home for the long holiday weekend.  Our weekends plans include relaxing, a couple of photo sessions, and decorating!
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

18 Months!

I know I haven't done a post like this since Emma turned one, but I thought that since she was a year and half now, it would be a good time for updates.
First, the good news is that her hives are basically gone!  Sunday she woke up, and they were definitely faded and this morning, if you didn't know she had them, you wouldn't even know.
We went back to the Doctor today for her 18 month appointment and all is well.  Her Doctor is not concerned at all about the hives or how they acted.  If they happen again, she does want us to go and see an allergist.  Her stats were:  32 3/4 inches (82%) and just under 23 1/2 pounds (32%)
Emma continues to love to read and to help me around the house.  She loves babies and can find them when ever we go out.  She recognizes Mickey Mouse and Characters, Winnie the Pooh, and Elmo, but only watches Mickey Mouse on TV.  She adds more words to her ever growing vocabulary every day and even remembers what things are on our drives.  She still says hi to the pumpkin patch when we drive by, (the tent is still up waiting for Christmas Trees) and will point out the Library and ask for her friend Sam. (Sam is who we go to toddler time at the library with)  She is singing her ABC's, twinkle twinkle, and ring around the rosy.  She loves to dance and color, and will run to the room her crayons and boom box are kept when she wants them.  She is retaining lots of information and surprises me every time she "reads" apart of a book before I have had a chance to read that page.
We can also tell that we are getting closer to the "2s" stage as we have had glimpses of tantrums, lovely screaming when she doesn't get her way, testing, and having to have things done a certain way.  I will be honest in saying that there are times that we are happy when nap or bedtime comes around, but we love or sweet, strong willed little girl, and can't imagine our life with out her!

Some Good News

I am very happy to report that Emma woke up this morning with no new hives.  She still has them all over, and they have all turned a brownish color, making them look like bruises, but at least no new ones.  I also think they are fading as the day goes on.  I am really hoping this isn't wishful thinking!  Here are some pictures of them "healing".

Not the Update I Was Hoping For...

I have come to two conclusions.  First - we are not meant to have family pictures taken. (we were suppose to have them on Saturday) Second - Emma may not get sick very often, but when she does, she feels the need to be different and unusual!

Emma continued with her Hives all day yesterday.  When she woke up this morning, she had more on her arms, face, and diaper area; plus her ear was swollen.  So back to the doctor we went.  By the time we got to the Doctor, her ear was still swollen, and more had popped up on her face and back.  Even after she had a dose of her steroids and Benadryl!   After a lengthy examination, and getting another doctor to look at her, we are still thinking these are hives, they just not acting like we would expect them to.  So we are trying another medication, Zyrtec, on top of the Steroids and Benadryl.  As long as she continues to not run a fever, eyes swell up, or she has difficulty breathing we don't need to go back in.  If she still looks like she does now on Saturday, we will need to go in and be seen again.
We will have to wait and see what the next couple of days bring!

What We Woke Up To....

Luckily we were able to get her into the Doctor first thing this morning and she has hives.  We don't have any idea where they came from.  She hasn't eaten any new foods or been around any new cleaning/laundry products.  Some viruses can cause hives, but she doesn't have any viral symptoms either. 
I left with instructions to give Benadryl and watch.

Unfortanetly, The Benadryl didn't work.  The doctor just called while I was typing this and he is calling a steroid in for her as we speak.  Hopefully that will do the trick.

Emma on the other hand is doing great.  She is a little itchy and a little irritable, but we confirmed today at the Doctors that she is also getting her molars (finally).  So considering all of this is going on at the same time, I think she is being a champ.  I will update tomorrow with hopefully clean pictures!

Last Week of October

It is hard to believe that October has come and gone.  It was a busy month, especially the last couple of weeks.  I have a feeling that the next couple of months are going to be just as busy with Christmas right around the corner!

Jessica was able to take Wednesday off of work, so Emma and I met her and Sophia at the Sea Life Aquarium in Arizona Mills Mall.  You aren't suppose to use your flash, so this is about the only picture that turned out.  Also, Emma decided to RUN from tank to tank, so that didn't leave much time for picture taking!  We had a great time and as usual, it is always fun to get the girls together.  Jessica - Emma and I talked. And she thinks that you should always have Wednesdays off so she can see you and Sophia!

I had found some Halloween Stickers for Emma, so she was busy coloring and putting on stickers for her Halloween Picture.

Halloween night started for us with Robert bbq-ing what else, but Cheeseburgers.  Emma normally has no problem eating hers, so I wasn't sure why she wasn't eating the meat.  She kept pointing to mine, and I kept trying to explain that it was the same thing she had, hers was just cut up.  After I was done with mine, I decided to give her what I had left to see what she would do.  Sure enough, that was the problem.  She didn't want hers cut up!  She put all of her "meat bites" on my plate and ate the cheeseburger like a big girl.  I guess she really isn't a baby anymore!

After dinner, we quickly got dressed so I could attempt to take some pictures, drop some treats off for the neighbors, and then head over to Uncle Josh's and Aunt Christine's to trick or treat with Anna and Aiden.  Here is our little Lady Bug!

We had some problems withe the antenna's fitting her head.  What I should have done, is cut them off, and then attached them to her pig tails.  But I didn't give myself enough time.  Oh well.  She was still adorable.

I wanted to get a picture with her holding her pumpkin bucket.  When I told her to get her pumpkin, this is what she got.

Since this is the pumpkin she decided on, it was almost impossible to get her to hold her bucket.  (She isn't stubborn at ALL!!!)  Once I put the cookies for the neighbors in it, she became more interested, but only in what was inside it!

Once we made it to The Brown House, this is how we were greeted...

The kids were adorable, but Emma wasn't too sure about Aiden's green face.  After about 5 minutes of crying and clinging, we were ready to go trick-or-treating!
Sadly, I don't have any pictures of trick-or-treating.  Anna and Aidan ran to each house, so it was all we could do just to try and keep up.  Emma did really well.  After the first person put something in her bucket, she had no problem walking and holding her bucket all by herself.  She loved looking at the lights and pumpkins in people's yard.  She would walk up to the door, but when someone came, she froze and wouldn't get any closer then about 2ft from the person.  After about 1 street, we went ahead and put her sweater on, and pushed her in the stroller the rest of the time.  As long as someone didn't come too close, she didn't seem to mind people being in costume.  We thought she would fall asleep, but once we got back to Josh's house and the kids dumped out her candy, she was ready to go.  I even broke down and let her have a lollipop.  Ok, Ok.  Daddy gave her a lollipop, and I wasn't about to take it away from her!

We had a great Halloween and hope everyone else did also!  It has been so much fun to look at everyone's pictures!!